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Physics of Life: University Physics at the Cellular Scale

Physics of Life: University Physics at the Cellular Scale

Lisa Lapidus Michigan State University
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Forthcoming
Life sciences students will only ever take one or two physics courses but will apply physical concepts in their later biological coursework. Physics of Life skips many traditional topics that are irrelevant to biology in favor of topics that are often omitted from the traditional introductory physics curriculum.

Print Book, ISBN 978-1-940380-50-6
eBook, eISBN 9978-1-940380-51-3
500 pages, Softcover

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Summary

The standard physics curriculum for life science students has remained the same for the past 50 years, providing those students the same material that physics and engineering students get. Meanwhile, the introductory biology curriculum has undergone a revolution. Physics of Life: University Physics at the Cellular Scale updates the physics curriculum for life science students, focusing on what physical phenomena life science students are likely to encounter in their advanced coursework.

This revolutionary, two-semester textbook removes many topics with no application in molecular and cellular biology from the standard curriculum (e.g., rotation, static equilibrium, electromagnetic induction). In their place, the author includes two major themes: diffusion and electric dipoles. By the end of the year, readers will have explored physics topics such as enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs free energy, with examples drawn from molecular biology.

Physics of Life treats concepts computationally, introducing programming and allowing readers to become comfortable with code. The book assumes no programming experience, keeping the conceptual barrier for the reader low, and includes an appendix introduction to Python. The text includes other electronic resources for illustrating physical concepts, such as videos, custom simulations, and PhET interactive simulations, as well as online homework.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Kinematics
3. Conservation of Momentum
4. Conservation of Energy
5. Collisions and Diffusions
6. The Momentum Principle
7. Types of Forces, Part I
8. Types of Forces, Part II
9. Work and Energy
10. Force and Potential Energy
11. Entropy
12. Thermodynamics
13. Free Energy
14. Electric Force
15. Electric Field
16. Electric Potential
17. Electric Current
18. Magnetism
19. Oscillations
20. Waves
21. Wave Mechanics
22. Optics
23. Photons and Biomolecules
Appendix I. Introduction to Python Programming
Appendix II. Vectors

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Lisa Lapidus Michigan State University

Lisa Lapidus is a Professor at Michigan State University in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She received her Ph.D. in 1998 from Harvard University working in Atomic Physics, but after finishing graduate school, she made a switch into Biophysics. This shift in focus gave Lisa a unique perspective of what it is like to learn a new field as a relative outsider.
The Lapidus lab at Michigan State University investigates the dynamics of disordered proteins during folding, during aggregation, and in cellular environments using a variety of optical techniques. The lab also uses many different computational methods to model the experiments they do and collaborates closely with biologists, chemists and physicists from around the world. Lisa developed the curriculum in this book for introductory physics courses taught starting in 2016 at Michigan State University. Since then, this curriculum has been taught to thousands of students using active learning techniques.
Lisa and her husband have two grown children who enjoy science but never want to follow in their mother’s footsteps. When not in the lab or teaching, Lisa enjoys photography, cooking, and gardening.

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